Waves, Sunsets, & Coffee

Chapter 12.0

"Can't believe we're leaving this place in a few days..."
After Sophia spent two days at the hospital under doctor Shepherd's wing, she was finally discharged and was advised to have bed rest.
Right now, we're back at the fireplace with my friends and Ares as he decided to spend the night here.
"Wait, when are you guys leaving?" Ares asked.
"On Monday. Hold up, Alex didn't tell you?"
"No... she didn't." Ares looks at me as I give him a sheepish smile.
"What? It slipped my mind!" I told them honestly to which I know they won't believe. They're my friends, when do they ever believe me?
"Hm, if that's the case, you guys want to go camping? Spend the next few days at the forest. It'll be fun." Ares suggests and my ears perked up from hearing the word camping.
It was something our whole group always wanted to do but never got the chance to do so because of high school and now, college.
"Count me in!"
"Me too!"
"Yeah, why not?" The group agreed at Ares' suggestion. How could they resist?
"Wait, we have no tents though, or camping gear." Keith said, the ever so responsible one.
See why we need a mother in the group? We were all so game at camping that we didn't even think about the tents and other stuff we needed besides the one and only responsible Keith.
"That won't be a problem. I'll cover the tents, plus we could rent the basic camping gear. So all you need is your personal stuff, food, and first aid." Ares explained to the group.
"I guess it's settled. Who'll buy the first aid?" Keith said, taking charge and at the mention of first aid, everyone looked at me and I groaned.
"Oh come on! Why me?"
"You're the medical geek here Lex." Enzo comments and I throw him the empty bottle of water.
"You're also going to the medical field Enz!" I argued back.
"Hey, in my defense, I take up psych and we don't study first aid shit and medications in detail. I'll be studying brains and how people think Lex. While you handle physical injuries shit." I wasn't able to say anything back at him knowing he's got a point and I hate him for it, so I instead rolled my eyes.
"Okay but still, why do you guys love torturing me huh? I mean, why not Keith? She's the responsible one." I told the group.
"Hey, she already thought of our problem and Ares solved it, and Ares is your boyfriend, so your job." Enzo takes her side as I make a confused face on how Ares being my boyfriend is connected to why I'm the one who has to get the medical stuff.
"God, fine fine alright! Just stop bothering me!" I exclaimed and they laughed. The things I do for them.
"I'm going to make coffee, who wants?" I told the group and no one raised their hands which was a surprise. Well, at least less effort.
I excused myself and went to the kitchen when I heard footsteps behind me.
"Alex." I heard Ares' voice and I sigh, knowing what's about to come.
"You're leaving and you didn't tell me." He starts.
"Look, it really slipped my mind okay? I'm not playing or anything I really just forgot." I told him honestly because I also didn't realize that I'm going back home in a few days.
"Mhm... come here." He snuggles closer to me as he buries his face on my neck as I make my coffee.

"Wake up! It's moooorning!" I groan at the two boys shouting for us to wake the fuck up. They continue to shout and bang the doors.
"We're gonna be late!" Oh my god. Can't they wake us up properly? I put my head under my pillow, trying to drown out the noise when I heard a loud scream followed by a thud in the room.
God, what now?
I sat up to check what happened only to see Enzo laughing with a chuckling Alec who seems to be about to shit his pants. I looked around and saw Madds who was dripping wet and covered with powder. What the hell.
Madds screams and says out a string of curse words which caught our other friends' attention as they all went running to our room.
"What happened?" They asked as they were greeted with Madds who was pranked by Alec and Enzo.
"I'm gonna kill you two!" Madds exclaims and she runs toward the two pranksters. Alec immediately ran away from her and Enzo somehow managed to dodge and avoid her.
It's four in the morning and they're doing this.
"Morning Alex." I hear Enzo tell me and I ignore him for what the two have done.
I was about to stand up from my bed when I was suddenly drenched with ice cold water. I look up to see Enzo laughing hard as he holds a bowl which held the water.
Alright. This made me lose my temper. Not because of the water's temperature, but because they woke us up by making loud noises and now I'm soaking wet.
I jumped to Enzo, tackling him to the ground. He fights back and he's strong. His advantage is his muscles, but I've dealt with other men like him before.
I struggled to pin him down, but I saw an opportunity as he rolled on his stomach, and so I got him in the simple, yet effective choke hold that never fails if you do it the correct way.
"St... stop!" He tried to say and I released him.
"Don't ever do that again." I warn him, clearly not in the mood for loud noises and pranks.
I went to the bathroom to fix myself and take a bath when I caught sight of Madds and Alec.
"Your fault hmmp." Madds said when I saw Alec with a faint bruise and scratches on his arm. Yep, it was wrong for them to prank the two of us.
"Babe! Look what your friend did." Alec complains to her girlfriend Emma and Emma simply rolls her eyes.
"First of all, she's our friend. Second, you deserve those scratches. I'm glad someone did it and I don't have to do it myself. That's for waking us up too." She argues and I leave them to take a shower.
I put on joggers and a bralette, tying my jacket around my waist since the weather's not that cold yet.
"Is everybody good?" Keith asks us as we all met up in the living room with our things with us. We had heavy gear and all as the two boys who pranked us couldn't contain their excitement. I roll my eyes at them, acting like five year olds.
Okay, my mood was ruined so now I come off as grumpy and mean. Can you even blame me?
"Yeah, I'll just have a quick run to the store to pick up first aid." I told them and Keith nodded.
"Hey, I'm at the local store right now. Can you send me the list of medical supplies we're going to need?" I called Ares.
After Enzo's and Alec's morning prank on us, I was finally able to calm down enough to go to the store.
Today is the day when the group is going camping, and they really assigned me to get the medical stuff when I had a cast on my left arm. What friends.
"Sure. I'll text them to you, hold up."
"Thanks, I got it." I ended the call and proceeded to get the necessities.
Bandages, check. Pain killers, check. Sterile wipes, check.
After half an hour of buying all the things I needed, I went back to the cottage to pack up the clothes and other things I need for later.
"Hey, we'll be by the firepit." The guys said, leaving me alone to pack the things we need, and I'm almost tempted to not pack their share of medical supplies.
"So how's you and Ares huh?" I heard Liam asked from the couch as he was watching his favourite series instead of joining the others.
"We're doing good actually. What's up?" I replied.
"How do you think you guys are going to handle the long distance relationship?" Hmm, that's something I didn't think of...
"I don't know really. I didn't think of that until now that you've mentioned it but, hopefully we'll do just fine."
"You know, there's a high probability of long distance relationships not working out well in the end..." Liam infromes me and I scoff.
"What, is that supposed to scare me?"
"No. Not really."
I heard shuffling from behind me and Liam suddenly showed up beside me.
"Here, looks like you need a hand" Liam says and I roll my eyes at his lame pun as he helps me sort out the things for later.
"What's this?" He asked, holding out a black pocket knife I got from the store.
"Press the button. It's a foldable pocket knife." I told him and he looked at me weirdly.
"Are you going to murder one of us or something?" He asked and I chuckled deeply.
"Maybe..."
"Hey!" I heard Ares' voice from outside so we went out to greet him.
"Alex, hey." He says, kissing me on the forehead. I guess that's his thing now. Forehead kisses. I like it, but I'm not going to admit that out loud.
"I got drinks for everyone, and here's your macchiato." He hands me my drink and I thank him endlessly since I haven't gotten to drink my coffee yet in the morning.
"Here." He gives the rest of the drinks to Emma who thanks him and hands it out to the others.
"You guys ready?" Ares asked and we nodded, packing our things in the van.
"So dude. What are we going to do when we get there?" Enzo asks Ares.
"Well first is the hike. It's a short hike and an easy one since there would be trails. But I'm gonna warn you, some parts are steep, so I hope you have the right shoes on." He says and we hear Madds gasp.
"Oh no. I'm wearing flats..." She says.
"Jesus Christ Madds. You know we're going camping and you wore flats?"
"You don't have extra shoes by any chance?" Madds asked.
"Your size is way smaller than any of us Madds. Deal with it."
"Hey it's alright. We'll be passing by a small shop on the way." Ares says and Madds smiles happily.
We continued the drive for about five minutes when Ares parked the van in front of a small store that says "Macy's".
We all went down to see what they had inside as Madds ran inside to get a pair of shoes, and with her loose, she'll most likely go on a shopping spree.
"So I heard a particular someone got pranked." Ares says while leaning on the van and I stopped in my tracks.
"Enzo told you didn't he?" I asked, knowing he'll grab the opportunity to embarrass me.
"Yep. 'Twas a classic prank huh. So how was the water?" He says and I roll my eyes, taking Enzo's side, so I left him and went inside when I felt arms around me.
"I'm joking Alex. Come here." He says, turning me around and enclosing me in his arms. I hug him back, liking the warmth he gives off.
"Okay come on let's go inside. Let's see what they have." I say, pulling from the hug.
"Woah. This place is awesome." I say, looking around at this place' vintage and retro look. The walls were painted a light shade of blue with rainbow like streaks of red, orange, and yellow.
Aside from the classic vintage looking clothes, it was complete with all vintage items such as the record player, a mini van, and fairy lights surrounding the place, giving this store some life.
I saw my friends admiring the store, while some, like Emma and Madds were taking pictures.
I was looking at one of the vinyl discs that has floral designs which looked like they were hand painted. I was admiring all the other painted vinyl discs when I heard a camera click. I look beside me to see Ares holding up a small camera, and smiling behind it as he keeps on taking pictures of me, so I instinctively covered the lenses with my hands.
"Ares! No." I laugh, trying to convince him to stop, but he's just as stubborn as him.
"Is Alex shy at the camera?" He teases and I roll my eyes.
"Whatever." I say jokingly as I try to go away from him and his camera and he catches up to me and apologizes.
"I'm sorry. I'll delete them if you want me to, but just so you know, I like these pictures. You're cute." He says and I think it's cute of him to do so.
"You're lucky I like you. You can keep 'em." I say and he smiles so wide my heart melts inside.

"Alright. We're here." He says as he stops the car in front of the same cabin he took me for our first date.
We went in as Ares led us to the couches where he said to wait for him there as he would be calling his partner so they could together brief us about what and what not to do during our camping.
"Have you guys ever gone two days without taking a bath?" Alec asks and we asked why he was asking that question.
"Why are you asking?"
"I just realized that there would be no showers or taking a bath for the whole duration of our camping..." he says and only then did I realize that he was right. Though I'm pretty sure all of us have gone two days without going in to take a shower...
"What?! No... but, my hair! It'll go greasy if I don't get to take a bath by tomorrow! Oh no... why did I agree to this." Madds panics as she continues to list down reasons why camping is such a bad idea.
"Alright so Erik is not here yet. You guys wanna get a quick breakfast?" Ares soon comes back and my friends eagerly nodded a yes as their stomachs start to rumble. Ares chuckles at them and we walk to the small restaurant just beside the cabin.
"Hi. I'm Matt, and I'll be your waiter for today. So are your orders ready?" He asks and I ordered a plate of pancakes and waffles, topped with butter.
"You want a shake?" Ares asks beside me and I shake my head no, saying iced water is fine.
"She'll have a large mango shake. Thanks." Ares says and wow I could marry this guy right here, right now.
Nah, I'm just kidding.
Soon, we got our orders and I went straight on cutting the pancake and waffle into small cubes when Ares' face was filled with confusion.
"What? This is how I eat pancakes and waffles" I say.
"You're weird." He says. I know.
I ordered a small bowl of sugar and after chopping my food into small cubes, I added two spoonfuls of sugar and mixed them all in.

"Hey. I'm Erik and I'll be with you throughout the duration of your camping. I'll be assisting Ares here to guide you to a safe and enjoyable adventure." After our breakfast, we went back to the cabin when a tall, handsome guy greeted us, and turned out to be Erik. Madds seems to have her eyes on him based on how he stares at Erik.
"So before we start the hike, we just like to brief you on the do's and don'ts. Ares?" Erik says and Ares starts explaining the basics to us and can I just say how hot he looks when he talks so professionally.
"Okay then. If everybody is set, let's get going shall we?" Erik says and we all stand up, ready to start the hike.
"Oh by the way, another group would be joining us, but they'll meet us there as they're taking a different trail."